Hamlet's Soliloquy. O be, or not to be, that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?-to die, -to sleep, no more; and, by a sleep, to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to ;-'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. to die ;-to sleep ; to sleep! perchance to dream;-ay, there's the rub; for in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause. there's the respect that makes calamity of so long life. for who would bear the whips and scorns of time, that patient merit of the unworthy takes, is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; SHAKESPEARE. Grande Certamen. SSE iuvet necne esse, hoc in discrimen agendumst: utrum tandem animo sit honestius inmoderatae glandes pertolerare et spicula fortunaï, an contra aerumnas ipsum maris instar habentes arma capessere et obstando pacare per aevum. mors sopor est, nil praeterea; sed scire soporem posse animi angores et vulnera naturaï innumerabilia, humanis contingere sueta, pacare, est nobis optandus terminu' talis. mors sopor; at fors visa ferat sopor: haeret ibi res. hinc pausam damus; hoc perpenso, denique cunctis ? quam nobis nova perfugium atque incognita habere. in cursus, ea quae fuerant iam indigna cluere. H. A. J. M. Upon a Flie. GOLDEN flie one shew'd to me, where both seem'd proud; the flie to have his buriall in an yvorie grave: nor that fine worme, that do's interre more honour had, then this same flie dead, and closed up in yvorie. HERRICK. Native Nobility. THOU Goddess! thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st in these two princely boys! they are as gentle as zephyrs blowing below the violet, not wagging his sweet head: and yet as rough, that wildly grows in them, but yields a crop. SHAKESPEARE. Honos Sepulcri. USCA mihi visast, nuper monstrante sodali, illa tumet, tumet hoc, fastu; nam musca superbit, materies busti quod sit eburna sui, iactat ebur rutilo se corpore, quo nitor auri vincitur, artificis lausque laborque manus. sors eadem fatis, decor est aequatus, utrique, quae iacet hic, muscae, quo iacet illa, loco. non culicis funus, celebrat quem musa Maronis, ver licet huic tribuat quod dare possit opum, nec quae viva latet Phaethontide condita gutta, versibus Hispani cognita vatis, apis, nec sibi qui, vermis pulcherrimus, ipse sepulcrum, undique nens stamen molle, parare solet, illius eximios muscae superarit honores, mortua cui niveum membra coercet ebur. H. W. M. Fortes creantur fortibus. Ω Φύσις, ἄνασσα πότνι, ὡς ἄρ ̓ εὐγενοῖν J. R. The Stedfast Shepherd. 'ME no slave to such as you be; ever rob me of my rest; goe, goe, display thy beautie's ray to some more soon-enamoured swaine; those common wiles of sighs and smiles are all bestowed on me in vaine. my spirit lothes where gawdy clothes I love her so, whose looke sweares no, WITHER. The Receiver as Bad as the Thief. AYS the Earth to the Moon, 'you're a pilfering jade, what you steal from the Sun is beyond all belief.' Madam Earth, give up railing,' fair Cynthia said, 'the receiver is reckoned as bad as the thief.' A. |